Mueller may be entering the final stages of a significant part of the Russia investigation

The special counsel Robert Mueller is getting ready to
interview Hope Hicks, the White House communications director
and one of President Donald Trump's closest aides.

Hicks was present during several moments leading up to
Trump's decision to fire James Comey as FBI director.

Mueller also asked the Department of Justice for
documents related to Comey's firing and Attorney General Jeff
Sessions' recusal from the Russia investigation.

Comey's firing makes up the basis of an
obstruction-of-justice case Mueller is building against Trump,
and experts say Mueller's document requests and readiness to
interview one of Trump's key advisers indicate that the case is
nearing its conclusion.

A report from Politico this week, which found that the special
counsel Robert Mueller is gearing up to
interview the White House communications director, Hope
Hicks, indicates that one of the many threads of the Russia
investigation is probably moving into its final stages.

Hicks has long been one of President Donald Trump's most trusted
advisers, and she was present during some events that are key to
the special counsel's investigation.

Mueller's investigation includes multiple components. In addition
to looking into whether members of the Trump campaign colluded
with Moscow to tilt the 2016 election in Trump's favor, the
special counsel is also investigating Trump on suspicion of
obstruction of
justice related to his decision to fire James Comey as FBI
director.

As part of that investigation, ABC News reported
on Sunday, Mueller has asked the Department of Justice for all
emails connected to Comey's firing.

Mueller has also requested documents related to Attorney General
Jeff Sessions' recusal from the Russia investigation. Sessions
announced his recusal in March after it emerged that he had
failed to disclose contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's
ambassador to the US, in his Senate confirmation hearing in
January.

Despite his recusal, Sessions played a prominent role in Comey's
firing, as did Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Hicks was also a key presence during several critical moments
leading up to Comey's dismissal.

Comey was spearheading the FBI's Russia investigation when he was
terminated as FBI director in May. At first, the White House said he
was fired because of his handling of the bureau's investigation
into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct
government business as secretary of state. But Trump later told NBC's Lester
Holt that "this Russia thing" had been a factor in his
decision.

The biggest challenge a prosecutor faces in an
obstruction-of-justice case is proving corrupt
intent, which is almost always difficult to establish. But
Trump's public statements bashing Comey and the investigation, as
well as a draft letter he put
together with his adviser Stephen Miller in early May laying out
his reasons for firing Comey, could work against him.

"The best way to prove someone's intent is through their own
words and actions,"Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor,
told Business Insider in an earlier interview. "Here, you have a
letter that was written by Miller, at the direction of the
president, that contains what the president's thoughts were at
that time."

Hicks was with Trump the weekend he and Miller drafted the
letter. She was also with Trump in the Oval Office for a meeting
on May 8, the day before Trump fired Comey. During the meeting,
Trump described the letter that he and Miller had composed.

Though its full contents remain unclear, The Washington Post
reported that it focused on what was perhaps Trump's greatest
frustration with Comey: that the FBI director did not publicly
announce, when he was leading the bureau's investigation, that
Trump was not personally under investigation.

Mueller's obstruction-of-justice case is 'probably coming to a
close'

Mueller's document requests to the DOJ and the fact that he is
preparing to interview Hicks signal that he is close to
concluding the obstruction-of-justice case he has been building
against Trump.

"When you're interviewing people in a large-scale investigation
like this, you generally start at the bottom and move towards the
top," Mariotti said. "As you interview lower-level advisers,
sometimes they give you information that makes you realize there
are additional documents you need to obtain or interviews you
need to conduct, before working your way up."

Adam Goldberg, who served as a White House lawyer in President
Bill Clinton's administration, echoed that point.

"Any time you can get someone who is the right-hand person or
who's been around the primary target of an investigation, under
oath, answering detailed questions, means you've progressed very
far along in the investigation," Goldberg told Politico.

Though the president's defense attorneys, like the White House
lawyer Ty Cobb, have expressed confidence that the Russia
investigation will conclude by as soon as the end of the calendar
year, sources close to the investigation told The Washington
Post on Sunday that they expected the investigation to
continue deep into 2018 and possibly beyond that.

Mueller's team took over the FBI's investigation in May, when he
was appointed special
counsel following Comey's firing. Prosecutors have so far
extracted a guilty plea from
the former Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser George
Papadopoulos, who was charged with one count of lying to federal
agents about his contacts with people who claimed to be linked to
the Russian government.

Hicks' testimony could be useful for other parts of the
investigation as well. In addition to being privy to Trump's
thoughts leading up to his decision to fire Comey, Hicks was also
with the president on Air Force One when he "dictated" an
initially misleading
statement that his son Donald Trump Jr. issued in response to
reports that he met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump
Tower in June 2016.

James
Comey.AP

The statement had to be amended several times after it emerged
that Trump Jr. took the meeting when he was offered dirt on
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as "part of Russia and its
government's support for Mr. Trump."

Hicks was among the advisers who believed the White House should
release a truthful statement that could not be repudiated if more
details surfaced later, The Post reported. They were ultimately
overruled, and the special counsel is now scrutinizing
Trump's response to determine what he knew about the meeting and
whether he acted to conceal its purpose.

"People shouldn't think of this investigation as one big
indictment that's going to come out charging everyone who's
involved," Mariotti said. "There are going to be pieces of it
that come out bit by bit."

But for now, he added, "it looks like the obstruction-of-justice
aspect of the case is probably coming to a close."